The Sniper Encyclopaedia is an indispensable topic-by-topic guide to a fascinating subject. This beautifully illustrated, comprehensive volume covers virtually any aspect of sniping. The work contains personal details of hundreds of snipers, including not only the
best-known, world-renowned marksmen such as Vasiliy Zaytsev and Chris Kyle, but also many crack shots whom history generally overlooks. Among them are some of more than a thousand Red Army snipers, men and a surprising number of women, who amassed
dozens and even hundreds of kills in the ferocious fighting of World War II’s Eastern Front. Some of the best-known victims of snipers are identified, and the veracity of some of the most popular myths is explored. The book pays special attention to the history and development of the many specialist sniper rifles – some more successful than others – that have served the world’s armies since the American wars of the nineteenth century to today’s technology-based conflicts. Attention,
too, is paid to the progress made with ammunition, without which, of course, precision shooting would be impossible. The development of aids and accessories, from optical sights to laser rangefinders, is also considered.
Finally, The Sniper Encyclopaedia examines places and specific campaigns – describing the ways marksman have influenced the course of the individual battles and the locations which have played a crucial part in the history of sniping.

John Walter, born in Glasgow in 1951, is among the world’s most prolific writers on small arms – author of seventy books, translated into more than a dozen languages. His most recent book is Snipers at War: An Equipment and Operations History, a companion
volume to The Sniper Encyclopedia. He has also written several studies of the Luger pistol; four editions of Rifles of the World; The Rifle Story and The Handgun Story; Guns of the Elite Forces; The German Rifle; and The Dictionary of Guns and Gunmakers.